725th Air Mobility Squadron, United States Air Force
15 Mar 2001
Location: Cadiz, Spain
Purpose: The 725th Air Mobility Squadron provides en route support for the Air Mobility Command (AMC) strategic, theater and contract aircraft transiting through Southern Spain. We perform aircraft generation, launch and recovery actions, operate an Air Mobility Control Center, Aerospace Ground Equipment Flight and a Forward Supply Location. We also manage AMC missions and aircrew operations, provide technical expertise to Navy and Spanish contractors on transportation issues and support DoD, NATO and higher headquarter tasking’s.
Role: Sole Resource Advisor (RA) responsible for managing, directing, evaluating, and coordinating all financial resources. As principal resource advisor to the Squadron Commander, I manage formulation, presentation, execution, and review of financial and budget programs. In addition to managing operational funds, I process all payroll and travel transactions for 190+ personnel.
Business Memorandum
Date: 04/17/2022
Subject: Business Model Assessment
Creating a Business Model Canvas of my organization proved to be enlightening. Not only did it identify areas of strengths, weaknesses and single points of failures. I had not realized our scope of responsibility was as wide as it was until completing this assignment. Often times you may begin to feel like your mission and/or purpose is routine and mundane. But when you break it down into categories such Key Activities, Beneficiaries and Mission Achievements you are reminded of the importance of your organization. Many Air Force missions would be less effective without our efforts.
Some of the weakness areas were spotted in Mission Budget/Costs and Deployment sections. A budget provides essential information for operating within your means, managing unexpected challenges, and turning a profit (Carlson, 2021). Within my business model we are currently at a disadvantage financially in case of emergencies or increased operations. For Fiscal Years to come ensuring we have receive an increase in funding will be beneficial. Following the assessment I deemed Deployment as my organizations second weakness area. By servicing multiple geographically separated units our ability to quickly respond within a crisis is delayed. Although there is no immediate fix to this, I have annotated it as an area requiring improvement.
Finally, training certifications, manning, and accessibility to equipment and tools are single point of failures within my organization. Air Force aircraft maintenance is very strict with certification regulations. Airmen who are not fully trained or have expired training may not work on aircraft. Due to our remote location we do not have training courses readily available to us. During the COVID-19 Stop Movement, dozens of maintainers were unable to renew their certifications and were unable to support our mission. This sort of dilemma quickly impacts our manning. Limited bodies on duty slows down our mission capabilities and the amount of planes we can get patched up and on to their destination. The final single point of failure identified was the inability to quickly receive tools and equipment. Almost all of our parts must be ordered from the U.S. and delivered. However, Spain recently experienced massive protests throughout the transportation career fields demanding that gas prices be reduced. Our organization felt the grunt of that as our 3rd quarter materials were still in transit. These are the sort of weaknesses that building a Business Model Canvas has assisted me with identifying so that we may reduce our risk of failure.
It is important to stay ahead of the curve and develop a business model canvas to help you document an in-depth, succinct and clear definition of your business. By focusing on aspects apart from product development, it gives you the competitive edge to launch a profitable startup (Young, 2017).
References
Carlson, R. (2022). Why Business Budget Planning Is So Important. Retrieved 13 April 2022, from https://www.thebalancesmb.com/business-budget-planning-reasons-393029
Young, S. (2017). 5 key benefits of using a business model canvas instead of a business plan. Retrieved 13 April 2022, from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-key-benefits-using-business-model-canvas-instead-plan-young